Media releases

• EXPERT ADVISORY: Super Bowl reignites debate over ‘Chiefs’ name

  Friday, January 31, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 31 January 2020 – R0022

  When the Kansas City Chiefs kick off against the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 2, conversation will be about more than just plays on the field.

  When a professional sports team makes it to a championship game, public conversations about mascotting get re-opened by mainstream media, anti-mascot activists and the general ‘pop’ public, says Jason Black, a Fulbright Research Chair in Transnational Studies at Brock University.

  “These moments allow us to spotlight the coloniality of Indigenous names, images and rituals used as mascots and to reveal, in the midst of increased attention, the ways in which such logics of colonialism continue to do harm,” Black says.

  In addition to their controversial name, the Kansas City Chiefs use an arrowhead as a logo, which many see as a weaponized stereotype. Their fans, like those of the Atlanta Braves and Florida State University Seminoles often engage in a tomahawk chop.

  “Interestingly, the Chiefs’ stadium is called Arrowhead and reservation imagery can be found around the facility, thus mocking the land to which many Indigenous people were moved as they were displaced by the U.S. Indian Removal Act (1830) and Allotment Act (1887).”

  Black says key sport moments help bring the mascot issue to the forefront.

  “These cases reignite discussion about mascotting as a colonial practice and the retirement of mascots names, visuals and performances as a decolonial antidote,” he says.

  Black has written extensively on Indigenous and activist issues and is currently researching Indigenous mascots in Canadian sport culture. He is the co-author with Andrew C. Billings of Mascot Nation: The Controversy over Native American Representations in Sports.

  Jason Black, Fulbright Research Chair in Transnational Studies with he Centre for Canadian Studies at Brock University and Professor and Chair of the Department of Communications Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is available for media interviews.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews: 

  * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

  Brock University Marketing and Communications has a full-service studio where we can provide high definition video and broadcast-quality audio.

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock expert says World Athletics ban won’t stop technology being integrated into shoes

  Friday, January 31, 2020 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 31 January 2020 – R0021

  With World Athletics announcing more stringent regulations on Friday, Jan. 31 for running shoes ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, a Brock University expert says a ban on new shoe technology will do little to slow the implementation of new and sometimes controversial developments by major shoe companies.

  Though Nike’s Vaporfly shoes have escaped the ban, Brock University Assistant Professor of Sport Management Michael Naraine says they remain under the microscope. Athletes wearing Vaporfly shoes took 31 of 36 top-three finishes in major marathons last year. The Nike AlphaFly, which was worn by Eliud Kipchoge when he ran the first sub-two hour marathon in October, was banned by World Athletics Friday.

  “The Vaporfly and AlphaFly represent a key innovation in the running space for Nike, and those innovations do not happen overnight,” Naraine says. “There is considerable concern and skepticism in the athletics world that these shoes provide an unfair advantage to the runner. However, Nike is not the only company working on such innovations in this space.”

  As the ban is only a temporary one, Naraine says it will do little to stop ongoing development from Nike and its rivals.

  “By not allowing new shoes into competition for 2020, World Athletics has ensured that all stakeholders are on the same page.” he says. “But you will see more and more of this technology implemented post-Tokyo as the Asics, Brooks and Mizunos of the world catch up to the worldwide leader in running shoe innovation. This is just the beginning in athletics, and we’re going to see more technology integrated into the shoes we wear in other sports, such as sprinting, soccer and basketball.”

  Michael Naraine, an expert in sport business intelligence and Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Brock University, is available for interviews. 

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

   * Dan Dakin, Manager Communications and Media Relations, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases